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Bronco Mendenhall—“…To survive the off-season will be quite an accomplishment.” |
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AF_Puma | Monday, January 22, 2007, 11:32 am
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Transcribed by Jim Vallen
COUGARBLUE
Coach Bronco Mendenhall wants to know if his individual players will crack under pressure.
He spoke last week with KNZ's David James (DJ) and Patrick Kinahan (PK) about the state of affairs of the BYU football team.
DJ and PK are on KNZ’s, The Manly Morning Show (6 A.M. to 10 A.M. weekday mornings on 1280 The Zone (1280 AM Salt Lake; 960 AM Utah County). Here is their interview:
1280: “I know you always have to get ready for the next game. When you win a bowl game and you have a ten-game winning streak and you’re nationally ranked, how long do you savor that before you’re back to the grindstone?”
Mendenhall: “You know, I answered that questions just a few moments ago in another setting. My wife and I, after the bowl game, we spent the Christmas in Mexico and on the plane ride home, after those ten days, was were the thoughts to this season, this next team, and this next opportunity started filling the note pages of a notebook. So a ten day window is about what it took.”
1280: “So when you were on that vacation you didn’t think about this recruit, or this spot on the depth chart, or this JC kid? You were able to keep this stuff out of your mind?”
Mendenhall: “[with a big chuckle] At a higher level than I ever have before. That would not be accurate, but I really did that at a higher level than I ever have before—that would probably be the best way to describe it.”
1280: “Did you bring the long board with you?”
Mendenhall: “I actually rented one. It takes too much to travel it on the airplane, but I have a good spot down there that gives me a good deal.”
1280: “That [bringing a long board on a plane] costs 100 bucks so it’s probably a good idea to rent down there.
How big of a fan are you of the ocean and of surfing and that?”
Mendenhall: “You know, it’s just a passion I’ve had since I was a little kid. My family always vacationed down in San Diego with all of my brothers and so, etc. It’s been a tradition that we’ve carried on even until now where every year, once a year, we meet at some beach somewhere. I didn’t learn to surf until maybe eight years ago and kind of at the prompting, direction of my wife who sent me out to a surf school. I was with mid-life crisis guys and junior high kids living in a teret on the beach. I learned and since then, every vacation we go it’s just been helpful to have some semblance of balance.”
1280: “You and Bobby Bethard, that two football guys I know now that surf.”
Mendenhall: “And again, I’d like to reiterate, I’m not real good. I like to do it, but if you went and saw it from the beach, you wouldn’t be amazed at my ability.”
1280: “You made a statement post regular season, in-between bowl game, when I asked you, ‘Hey, do you think that success in a bowl game will help in recruiting?’ You said you couldn’t really answer that obviously, but now you’ve had that success and we’re a couple of weeks from the signing date. Can you kind of give your thoughts on that?”
Mendenhall: “I can, and the reason I couldn’t answer that question before was that we had most of our class committed before the season began and so our time table is different that what most Division 1-A programs are going through. What I’ve seen already is a continued acceleration of juniors’ interest already in our program and it’s just accelerating the cycle even further and so it has paid a dividend. The visibility of the bowl victory certainly was helpful. The ten-game win streak has also been played and mentioned many times back to us, but I think the biggest thing is the confidence and the direction the program will continue to do produce what it has in just two short seasons.”
1280: “How about the class you have committed to sign in about a couple of weeks?”
Mendenhall: “I feel good about the class. It was a class, as I just mentioned, that was identified and solidified really before the season started. We’ve only really had one recruiting weekend in this recruiting season and that is all we’ll have. They came in the last week as a celebration of their commitments rather than in a recruiting format, but I think they have been assessed and evaluated in the terms of the right kind of a young man, the right kind of academic achievers and the right kind of performers to have success here over time. Not just in one year or not just in two years. I think they are going to be the core of what our program is going to be.”
1280: “So now you have to break in a new quarterback and there’s nothing Cougar fans enjoy more than a good tussle for the top quarterback spot. Do you go into spring ball with a depth chart or do you say they’re all even going in and split reps? How do you start to handle this?”
Mendenhall: “The start has already happened. We just had two weeks of off-season workouts already. A very demanding off-season work and I’d like to find out whom these young men are and if they’ll crack under pressure and if I can trust them and if they’ll emerge into a leadership role or if they’ll become a follower. So our off-season, not only for the quarterback position, but for our entire team. It’s kind of framed with the idea that it will be very, very difficult and to survive the off-season will be quite an accomplishment. But we’re looking to find out a lot about our team and the players that are going to be filling critical positions through that time. So right now [the quarterbacks] they’re even, but the off-season will probably determine—will determine, someone going into the first day of spring practice that will be the number one quarterback or that will receive the first reps.”
1280: “You brought in [Cade] Cooper as a walk-on. Where does he fit? Is he going to be a serious candidate?”
Mendenhall: “He is going to be a serious candidate and he is one that I would have given a scholarship to if I had one available certainly by his merit.
I’ve learned a lesson in terms of the number of early commitments. We had so many and we became so full, so fast that it leaves you very little of a window at the end, at least on an injury or on a player that didn’t perform in the season the way you thought they might and maybe in recruiting you might have changed along the way. What I found in Cade’s case specifically, it would have been nice to have one left, so to speak, because I would have been recruiting him and I would have offered it to him if I had one. And again, I’m doing everything now based on managing the mission plans of players to make that available if I can.”
1280: “Who is leaving on a mission? We’ve talked about the defensive lineman. Is there any firm commitments as far as going or staying?”
Mendenhall: “There are some and there’s no question I’ll make a mistake in trying to name the names off to you because of the volume, but on the defensive line spot specifically, Romney Fuga, who played as a true-freshman, will leave; Matangi Tonga, who played as a true-freshman, will leave; Jordan Richardson, a true-freshman that we redshirted, will leave at the defensive line spot. Ian Dulan, based on his birthday, will return and play for the fall and then will leave after that.”
1280: “Is Russell Tialavea going to stay?”
Mendenhall: “Yes, Tialavea will stay on also for the fall.”
1280: “Coach, you have so many guys that were key to this team that left and you have to replace a lot of key guys. We could go forever discussing each and every one of them, but Cameron Jensen, such a strong leader, guys were drawn to him, when times were tough the guys could lean on him. Who is a guy that can step in and fill his shoes?”
Mendenhall: “You know, I’m not sure yet. Our linebacker corp is still, what I think is the strength of the defense and maybe the team. In watching the workouts so far with Kelly Poppinga, Bryan Kehl and David Nixon—those three. We have a good group of young players as well. So I’m not sure that it will be “a” single player, rather than an entire group—a collective of a position that will be leading this team. This off-season will help me determine a lot of that.
Cameron, the role that he ended up playing, is different than the role he started with in terms of the influence of his leadership. It grew over three years. So I think I have to be realistic in terms of maybe not comparing someone to Cameron, but getting the most leadership out of my current group and developing it as fast as possible.”
1280: “On the offensive side, obviously John [Beck] was the major focus. You have Fui [Vakapuna] who is obviously a very emotional guy, who do you think will be the leader on that side of the ball?”
Mendenhall: “What I can share with you is probably what the team has done in terms of the leadership council voting. That was done just yesterday or the day before. While there are players that have emotion and a competitive spirit, the offensive leadership council voted for the offensive line, Travis Bright, as our representative for our upcoming semester. The appointments are just semester by semester. Matt Allen returns at receiver of the leadership council member. At running back there are two—Joe Semanoff and Manase Tonga. Those four were the players that were voted on by their peers at this point to represent the offensive side of the ball.
The reason we go semester by semester is because this team will get to know each other at a higher level in this off-season and there will be others added and there will maybe be some replaced.”
1280: “I’m a little concerned about your speed at running back. Where do you think you’ll get it? I know you have some recruits and you can’t mention their names publicly, but maybe you can just refer to that area if that’s where you think it will come from.”
Mendenhall: “I feel good about our speed and of our current players it is probably most appropriate to talk about. Certainly Fui is a bruising type of runner, an emotional runner and a competitive runner. We all know what he is capable of. I don’t think there has been proper acknowledgement given because Harvey Unga was hurt all last year, but in terms of his off-season, in terms of the summer workouts, and how he was timed, we feel that there is a size/speed ratio in him that’s going to be very effective and certainly the role at fullback, Manase and Joe’s position is sound. So I think the combination between Fui and Harvey and possibly recruits coming in is it. We’ve got Wayne Latu coming back, who is a kind of a quick change of direction type of back—scat-back type. And then, with the possibility of again, new commitments coming, I feel that that could be another strength of this program. We are without the experience that Curtis [Brown] provided us, but the numbers and the talent will be strong enough.”
1280: “Fui Vakapuna came back last year and everybody just raved in what kind of shape he was in and how quickly he made the transition back from the mission. Are you seeing that? Is that too early to ask you? Does this need to be asked in another little while down the line? Are you seeing that from other guys coming back?”
Mendenhall: “No. Fui was the exception and I think what most of us in our program and others dealing with the returned missionaries, it takes roughly a year. Certainly there are exceptions under and over and in going back to Fui’s case specifically, while he was very, very impressive in the spring and had come back and in far greater shape than we had ever imagined, what we’ve seen a lot of times with missionaries is that the initial work and capacity is just kind of driven by heart and the intent is high, but the volume then catches up as their bodies haven’t been prepared. Then there’s a kind of diminishing capacity over time. In Fui’s case, he had a very strong spring and then through some difficulties in the summer, I think he actually digressed some from what the spring was and I think that was what kind of led to injury possibilities in the fall that happened.
Again, that’s probably a different example of what we are normally talking overall concerning returned missionaries, but a year time frame is the safest thing to count on in terms of managing your program and why someone might be able to contribute at the highest level.”
1280: “You talked a little about and referenced briefly maybe that with two years as the defensive coordinator/head coach, that you might consider changes in the assignments. What are your thoughts about that now?”
Mendenhall: “I’d like to do it again. I learned a lot in this past season. We really targeted and simplified a lot of things. I delegated a lot more and I really focused on that which was most important and that was, as I said all year long, is the number of points that we were giving up. I believe we were either ninth, tenth or eleventh [BYU was ranked 10th nationally in scoring defense], I don’t know what the final numbers came in at in terms of points allowed out of 119 teams. That gave us a great chance to win football games. So I feel a lot more confident with the staff that I’ve been surrounded with. The addition of Coach Hill in the secondary, another year of experience and perspective in what I need to direct my time to and what I can pass on. I just like to do it. I like the interaction with the players. I think the identity of the team has a lot to do with my daily interaction. So at this point I’m still planning on doing it.”
1280: “Will there be any changes on your staff?”
Mendenhall: “I can never say that for sure, but we just made it through one of the most critical windows with the national coaches convention [American Coaches Football Association that was just held January 7th through 10th in San Antonio, Texas] and there were attempts at some members on our staff and they’ve elected to stay. I’m grateful for that, but to say that it is over is probably premature. Once you get into that spring practice window, very few changes happen really from there and through the summer.
This next time period we’re still at risk, everybody is, however the window we just passed was the most critical one.”
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